Manchester United owner Glazer dies

Manchester United owner Glazer dies

Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer passed away this morning. The announcement was made by the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which Glazer also owned. He was 85 years old.

Glazer bought into the legendary English club back in 2005 for a reported £800 million (£1.0424 billion in 2014 value), and under his ownership, Man United won five English Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League crown back in 2008.

Though he’s received plenty of hate and vitriol from Man United fans since his purchase of the club, Glazer has seen Man United’s value increase to $2.81 billion, according to Forbes, and in 2012 the club signed a seven-year shirt sponsorship deal with Chevrolet for a reported $600 million in total.

According to a statement released by the Buccaneers, Glazer’s wife Linda as well as their six children will remain in control of the NFL team, and likely will do the same for Man United. Sons Joel and Avram Glazer are co-chairmen of Man United.

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What do you think of this news? What kind of legacy do you think Glazer has in English soccer?

But as for legacy, the man did nothing for American Soccer. He set back and watched as the Mutiny died a painful death. He never brought Man U over until it was clear he would profit from it. Such a missed opportunity and frankly his ownership ultimately hurt the image of American owners. He could have learned a lot from Randy Lerner (at least in Lerner’s early years of Villa ownership).

Man U’s downfall had less to do with the amount of money the owners pumped into the club, and more to do with holding onto players past their experation dates.
MU was also trying to meet the FFP expectations and become profitable, while other clubs (Man City, Barca, etc.) ignored the FFP and don’t care about profitability.
Up until this past season, MU was a top 4 club in the BPL, and will likely return to the top 4 in short order once they dump their dead weight/over the hill players and replace them with competitive youth.

Truth. Glazer was not the world’s greatest guy, but he was hardly the worst, and the results and trophies never justified the complaining from the fat, pasty cadre of Manc haters. Here’s hoping the old boy channeled those klowns and gave a big “Glazer OUT!”, dropped the mic, and hit the exit.

RIP mr.glazer
I wonder if MLS will ever get a the glazer family to join MLS. MLS needs to recruit billionaire owners who like soccer or know what soccer is. Some owners in this league just don’t get it, and a ownership lik nycfc and Miami sound scary just to imagine that in MLS parity is just a myth if you really open your wallet.
For example, if sounders,galaxy, red bull, tfc, Orlando, Miami, nycfc, open their MLS parity wallet, every team will be crying and those teams will in their own league.

Landon Donovan is an MLS legend and kinda of national team. I’m not hating either, but I think it’s sad MLS hasn’t produce more Landons and MLS only has 1 legend per se. As for the national teAm, Landon was just younger and modern for the USA national team, and that made a big difference.
So for all Landon lovers, would you rather be Reyna, mcbride, friedel, Beasley or Donovan. I’ll rather be mcbride, he play overseas and had a better mentality and attitude.
It’s sounds sad, but Landon is only an MLS legend and star and MLS has more stars now.
Landon never stayed in Europe and MLS quality can define a world soccer legend.
So I ask Donovan, go to Miami, nycfc cosmos, prove yourself to all your fans and how about go to Europe for the last time.

Even though I have issues w/ Donovan (I was actually expecting he & Dempsey both to have been relegated to bench or B squad players by this point), no-one can discount what he has contributed to the sport in the US. Without his clutch performance at WC’s or his being a poster boy for MLS, soccer in the US would not be where it is today.
Donovan’s successes have lead to an influx of quality youth players sticking with the sport. And carried the torch ever since 2002. He is the benchmark for US Players. Who will equal his National Team career….Who’s to say.
But however you look at him he has done wonders for the US team, program, & MLS.

Local DC sports radio mentioned his passing this morning and spoke for a minute or two about his ownership of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the role he played in the NFL. They threw in that he owned MU but it came across as a side venture of little importance.

Boy I tell you, the grave spitting that is already going on is too classy to stand. It reminds me of the acerbic cynical and mindless rants that go on during so many USMNT discussions. Folks just don’t think before they speak.

Never been a Man U fan, but as a fan of the growth of US soccer I was excited to hear about what the Glazer family was trying to do (money talks in any professional venture after all), even if there were some legitimate growing pains along the way. Sorry the family will have to take so many hard knocks now and I hope they can find peace amidst the vitriol.

While Malcolm Glazer did nothing illegal to buy Man U the way in which he did it is the problem I and many people have with it. It was a private equity leverage buyout. He took on a huge amount of debt to buy the team. He then used every means possible to squeeze profit by seeking new revenue streams, such as extended preseason travel to Asia. When the team appreciated in value he used the new equity or wealth not to buy new players or invest in te club but to pay himself and his outstanding debts.

In the short term he helped himself and on the surface it may appear he helped the club but in the long run it has hampered the team, as evident by a 7th place finish. Selling Ronaldo was good in the short term but meant the team could never realistically challenge for a Champions Leage title. Who knows what will happen with the team now but assuming his heirs sell it, they will make a nice profit but the foundation of the club had been weakened and the Man U brand has been badly tarnished.

Again he did nothing illegal and this type of leveraged buyout goes on all the time but I and I think many wonder if is really good for soccer or capitalism.